Heart Stump

My dad once said “There is nothing sadder than a sick or dying tree.” Walking around the neighborhoods of Minneapolis, you can get pretty sad these days. The “Ulmus Americanus” are being felled pell mell. We learned our lesson, hopefully. Diversity of tree varieties is a good thing.

I was out walking and happened upon this tree stump. It caught my attention and offered a bit of hope, as if the tree was saying “I’m okay. My spirit will go on.”

Dutch elm disease is a deadly fungus carried by the Elm Bark Beetle. The wood chips from a fallen Elm cannot pass on the fungus, so the chips are one way to carry the trees legacy on.